Dark Light
by gerjomarty
Summary: Post 02. K plus for later chapters. Evil has taken over a part of the Digital World, but only Kari can fight this new evil with a new power she will have to master... Darkness. After a year, here's Chapter Four!
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes :: I'm finally back, and I'm a few days late with my anniversary fic! Yes, that's right. Three years have flown by so fast and I'm celebrating by finally getting up off my ass and writing about an idea that I got over a month ago. I really hope you enjoy it. In other news, my website is back up again! Visit my profile to go to it.  
EDIT: I've fixed some spellings and stuff, as I reread and there were far too many.

Disclaimer :: I do not own digimon. I think that's fairly obvious. Let's get on with the show.

**_DARK LIGHT_**

In the distance, the sun can be seen setting over the digiworld sky. Only a few white wispy clouds remained, and the trees swayed gently in the warm breeze. A huge lake could be seen in the middle of a clearing with luscious trees around the outside of it.

Suddenly, the lake parted ways and a flight of stone steps became visible, leading down to an old-style Japanese house on the bed of the lake. A man was walking up the steps. In the distance, what sounded like a galloping horse could be heard.

"He's here," the man said. The source of the galloping noise was now within view, and it was clear that it was Centarumon, the protector of the Temple of the Digivice.

"Gennai, I'm glad you're here. I'm sure you're aware of the situation," Centarumon said. He stopped gracefully and his red eye focused down on Gennai.

"Yes, Centarumon, I have heard of the Domain of Darkness," Gennai simply said.

"What shall we do? Did you find any prophecy for it?" Centarumon asked. He was obviously agitated about something.

"Believe it or not... no. Not a thing," Gennai said with a frown. He glanced up at the huge centaur digimon.

"What?! This is impossible! what can we do?!" Centarumon shouted. He jumped up on his hind legs. Gennai flinched.

"Please Centarumon, calm down!" We will get this mess sorted out," Gennai pleaded. "Let's go through this from the start."

Centarumon brought himself together, "Right. Well what we know is that exactly one week and two days ago and area of land about one and a quarter miles north-west from here was taken over by some sort of strange dark force that shrouded an area about the size of half of File Island in a thick darkness. Several brave digimon have tried to break the barrier to get through, but have been... deleted going through. Digimon in the surrounding area have nicknamed the place the 'Domain of Darkness'. And we have not got any way of knowing what exactly is going on in there." The wind picked up a bit as he finished retelling the events of the past week.

"Quite the predicament," Gennai grinned.

"Gennai. You know this is no time to be having fun," Centarumon scolded.

"I know, I know, but I think I may have the answer," he said smirking.

"Well what?"

"You know the Temple of the Trinity, right?" Gennai asked.

"Well, I have heard rumours that it contains the artefacts of three digimon that have long since gone," Centarumon stated.

"Well, you're partly right. It's situated around these parts, and it's one of those places that 'decides' when it wants to show itself. The rest of the time it remains hidden to the naked eye. Well, guess what? It's 'decided' to become visible again. And right on the day that the Domain appeared."

"You think they're linked?" Centarumon asked the old man.

"I know for a fact that they're linked. Because I went to have a look myself. And I found that only one artefact remains in the temple," Gennai smiled.

"So is this the key to victory? What do we do with this artefact?" Centarumon asked again.

"I think this could be a job for the digidestined again."

The lingering barrier of the Domain of Darkness was clearly in view as the sun shone it's last light on the digital world that night. Gennai and Centarumon wondered what threat this new evil would bring and what action it would take against the good digimon of the world. Because they would need to get back up against whatever happened.

And fast.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


	2. Chapter 2

**_DARK LIGHT_  
**

_Chapter 2_

**  
**

The door to the computer room slid back to reveal Davis, Yolei, Cody. DemiVeemon, Poromon and Upamon.

"What's going on!?" Davis panted as he practically fell into the room . Everyone else walked in as normal.

"Davis, do you always have to make a big dramatic entrance?" Yolei pushed past him and on into the room. Izzy was already sitting at the computer, along with Tai who was standing beside him. "What's up?"

"Well, we've received an e-mail from Gennai. It seems that he needs us to go back to the Digital World again. Something about…"

The door flew open once more and TK, Kari. Patamon and Gatomon came in. "I hope we haven't missed anything," TK said.

"No, we're just getting started," Tai said.

"OK. Well, Gennai has e-mailed me saying that he needs our help again. The Powers of Darkness are back," Izzy explained again. Everyone grimaced.

"It can't be!" TK shouted. Patamon tried to console him.

"About one and a half miles north-north-west of his home under the lake, an area about half the size of File Island was engulfed in a mysterious dark force. It created a huge, impenetrable barrier. He even said that digimon that had tried to get through had been…" he gulped. "Deleted." The mood in the room turned yet again.

"Oh God, Poromon, those poor digimon!" Yolei said. She was on the verge of tears. The faces of the room all had a look of pure shock. It had been a few months since they had defeated MaloMyotismon. None of them had even considered that they would be called back again after such a short space of time. There was dead still. The only noise that could be heard was the soft humming noise of the single computer switched on.

"Is there any way to stop it?" Kari asked.

"He says he thinks there may be," Tai went on.

"Yeah, he also said about an ancient temple beside the dark place. It had some sort of artefact in it," Izzy said.

"A new way to digivolve, maybe?" Davis asked.

"That would be great!" DemiVeemon yelped. He bounced up and down beside Davis.

"I have the strangest feeling we're going to find out for ourselves," Cody said. He got his yellow D-3 from his trouser pocket. "Ready, Upamon?"

"You bet!" the yellow digimon said.

Everybody in the room knew what would be coming next. They all produced their D-3s and got ready to depart to the Digital World. Izzy got up form the office chair and moved it back to the wall, along with Tai who also moved out of harm's way.

"Of course you know we'll be here waiting for you, right?" Tai asked.

"We know," Yolei said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey! You'll thank us for that some day!" Izzy said, feeling a little hurt.

"Of course, Izzy," Yolei simply said. Everyone in the room grinned. Inside, they all wanted to go back to the Digital World, even if it was to fight the powers of darkness. Some would even say it was like going back to a second home.

"We ready?" Kari asked. "Let's get this show on the road." Kari, TK, Cody, Davis and Yolei aimed their D-3s towards the computer monitor. Davis did the honours.

"Digi Port Open!" he shouted. Light flooded out of the monitor, as the digidestined became silhouettes in the bright light. They were pulled into the computer and went across to the Digital World. The Odaiba Elementary computer room fell quiet. Izzy retook his place in front of the screen, as Tai pulled up a seat from a neighbouring desk.

"Izzy, who do you think is responsible for this?" Tai asked. His concern was obvious.

"We've destroyed every other dark digimon that could have possible caused this. Devimon, Etemon, Myotismon, the Dark Masters, Apocalymon. There's nobody left! This has _got_ to be a new digimon," Izzy theorised.

"But you know what happened with Myotismon! It could be one of those digimon but in a different form," Tai suggested. He fell back on his chair. "How many more times do we have to beat them?" he said quieter.

"As many times as it takes, Tai," Izzy said. "We just have to hope that these guys can beat whatever it is that's causing this."

The Digital World was peaceful. A small TV with rabbit ears was propped against a tree. It was one of the trees that stood around the lake where Gennai's house was. The sun shone with a soft glow and light was spread all around. The television flicked into life and let out five human children with their digimon, they in different clothes and their digimon in different forms.

"Well that was nice," Cody said.

"Sure was," Armadillomon agreed.

"OK, so where are we going now?" Yolei asked no-one in particular.

"Gennai. In that lake over there," TK said. Patamon flew up from the ground and landed on his head.

"It's been a while since we've been here, isn't it TK?" Patamon said to his partner.

"Yeah, I know."

"Uh, somebody corrent me if I'm wrong, but there aren't any houses around here at all," Hawkmon said, looking around in confusion.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough, Hawkmon. Actually, I haven't seen Gennai's place either," Kari said.

"Well we're not doing much sitting around here, are we? Let's go!" Davis suddenly shouted. The group proceeded to walk through the abundance of trees towards the lake that could be faintly seen in the distance.

After walking for about half an hour, the group finally came to the edge of the lake.

"So what now?" Gatomon asked. TK and Patamon smiled.

"You'll see now," TK said. Everyone else was in the dark about the house under the lake. The gentle rippling of the lake against the grass verge was hastily interrupted by a line of water parting from itself in the middle of the lake right up to where the digidestined and digimon stood. Two waterfalls broke apart from each other to reveal stone steps leading down to a shoji-style house on the lakebed. The surrounding of the steps looked like an aquarium.

The digidestined stood, dumbfounded, at the top of the flight of stairs leading down.

"That Gennai is some guy," said Davis. Everyone nodded in agreement, their mouths all hanging open.

"Why thank you, Davis."

A small, hunched figure appeared at the bottom of the stone steps and started to ascend. As it got closer, the winkles and ponytail of the wise, old man could be clearly defined.

"It's Gennai!" shouted Cody, surprised to see him in his 'old' form again after their international trip to rid the world of Control Spires. He reached the top and stood before the digidestined.

"It's good to see you again, children. Unfortunately, we don't have time for pleasantries. I'm sure you've heard of our current problem from Izzy?" The group all nodded in agreement. Gennai continued, "Well, what we need to do now is find the temple, this much we know."

"What temple is this, anyway?" Yolei asked.

"It's called the Trinity Temple."

"How can it help get rid of this darkness, then?" Kari said.

"To be honest, Kari, I don't really know. I heard about some ancient artefacts down there, but I'm not sure how they're going to help us. This is only a hunch, but it's one I believe in," Gennai said, to the amazement of the others.

"So you don't even know if this'll help?" Veemon said, quite loudly.

"We may as well try it, no?" Gennai smiled and chuckled, rubbing his head. Bemused, the others could do nothing but follow Gennai off into the forest towards Trinity Temple and an uncertain future.

The only noise to be heard was the breathing of the kids and their digimon and the soft crunching of grass below their feet. The forest they were walking through was luscious to say the least, with huge exotic trees with tall canopies. However, the digidestined's minds were on other matters. The huge dome of thick fog and blackness was straight ahead and its looming presence would be enough to dampen anyone's spirits. The closer the group walked to the Domain, the darker and thicker the air around them seemed to get. Gennai, who had been leading the group, stopped suddenly, about fifty yards from the dome.

"Why did we stop?" Davis asked, looking around for the temple that Gennai had mentioned before. "I don't see anything."

"Maybe you're not looking hard enough," Gennai cryptically said. The digidestined continued to look around, but Kari was focused on a huge rock to the right of the path they had been walking through. She continued to stare right into it.

"What are you looking at, Kari? It's just a rock," Gatomon said, pacing up to the rock and examining it closely. Then she turned around and looked up into Kari's eyes. "You're getting a feeling, aren't you?"

The girl walked slowly up to the huge rock and gently placed her hand on the cold, stone surface. It rested there for a few seconds, but then it went right through it. She stumbled, and then smiled.

"I found it!"

Everybody else looked round from where they were searching.

"That's just a rock, Kari," Yolei said.

"Maybe we're not looking hard enough at it," Cody suggested. He went up to the rock and pressed his hand against it. Sure enough, it slipped right through it. "Gennai, I think we've found it," he said.

Trinity Temple was deceivingly spacious. Once everybody had stepped through the cover of the rock, it had simply disappeared. Inside, the temple looked like a cavern cut out of rock, and it had a single corridor continuing on through deep into the bedrock. The entrance cavern was dimply lit by lamps hanging from a high ceiling, however the corridor that went on into the rock was pitch black.

"I wonder what's down the corridor," TK said, staring into the blackness of the passageway. He shuddered.

"Come on, what's the worst that could happen?" Veemon said cheerily. The rest of the group looked at each other, concerned.

"We don't know what's down there," Cody said. Armadillomon nodded in agreement.

"It could be something… very scary," said Yolei, sounding terrified.

"well, whatever's down there you're going to have to look, because that's where these artefacts are," Gennai said, placing his hand on one of the stone walls. He suddenly looked very nervous. "This place has changed since last time."

"What do you mean 'changed'?" Hawkmon asked.

"The walls feel different. It might be the only change. Be very careful. I must leave you now, I have other matters I need to attend to." And with that he strode out of the temple. Davis looked out after him, but he was nowhere to be found.

"He has a habit of doing that, doesn't he?" Gatomon said, rolling her eyes.

The room fell silent.

"Come on, it's just a dark cave. No fear," said Davis, with a grin. "Let's go, Veemon."

"Right behind ya, Davis!"

"OK then, let's go," TK said.

The group started off towards the narrow, black corridor. There was tension in the air as to what was waiting for them at the end of it. Their steps echoed around the chamber and as they entered the corridor the lights got dimmer and dimmer. Davis led, with Yolei, Kari, Cody and TK following close behind. With each passing step, the nervousness of the digidestined increased. When suddenly…

"Oww! What was that for!?" Davis shouted. He was hopping about, holding his foot. Davis has walked right into some sort of invisible screen. He stretched out his right hand and touched the screen. It felt like glass, however he saw nothing in front of him.

"A force field?" TK asked. He stretched his arm out towards where Davis has put his hand. He also felt the invisible barrier.

"What do we do now?" asked Patamon.

"We can't go back, we have to find this artefact," said TK. The group stood staggered in the middle of the cave. Nobody knew what to do.

"What sort of force field is it?" Cody asked, putting his hand forward to seel the invisible wall.

"The kind that doesn't let you through, obviously," said Davis, sarcastically.

"It must be here for a reason. Whatever is down that path must be pretty important," Cody pondered.

"I want to see what this force field feels like," Kari said. She put her hand forward to lean on it.

"What?"

But strangely, she didn't feel anything.

"Where is it?"

"Here Kari, right in front of you," TK said, placing his hand on the screen. She tried to put her hand on it, but it went straight through where the other's were being stopped.

"Kari, you can get through?" Gatomon said in surprise. Everyone gasped.

"Um, I guess so," the girl simply said.

"You know, I think this means something. Like, maybe it's only Kari that can get the aretfact," Cody said.

"Nobody else can get through there, after all," Armadillomon added.

"Me!? Why me!?"

"Come on Kari, we all know you can do this," Yolei said supportively.

"It definitely won't be anything scary anyway. I hope," said Patamon.

"We're _all_ behind you!" Gatomon smiled. Kari surveyed the rest of the group. Her friends. They all knew she could do it. She smiled to herself.

"Alright then, I'll go," she said. Everyone cheered with excitement.

"Any monsters, just give us a shout, OK?" Davis told her.

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind Davis."


	3. Chapter 3

**_DARK LIGHT_**

_Chapter 3_

Inside the expansive cavern, the digidestined present, Davis, Yolei, TK and Cody, all pensively stood. TK was pacing around the central room every other minute while the others leaned on rocks and eyed him with an annoyed but understanding glance. The gloomy atmosphere and the bleak light of the cave bore down on the kids. Their digimon sat on the cold, wet floor, some with their eyes closed, often seen shivering in the freezing cave. Gatomon stood, her eyes scanning the room. TK started another lap of the room. Davis' fists clenched. 

"Would you _please_ stop doing that!" he shouted. TK turned to him with a look of anxiety on his face. Frowning, he continued to pace. Davis grunted and kneeled down to try to rest his legs more.

"What do you think is going on down there?" Yolei pondered, indicating the small, black hole that Kari had ventured down about half an hour previously. The blackness was so thick down there; it was as if the doorway was a portal to a cold, bleak world.

A small rumble formed deep in the bedrock of the cavern. The floor became unseated and began to shake without control. The group had almost no time to react. The kids grabbed hold of the vibrating walls and the digimon braced themselves. Just as soon as the tremor started, it was over.

Silence.

"What was that?" Davis asked no-one in particular.

"Some sort of earthquake?" Cody inquired.

"Oh no, what if…" Yolei began.

"Kari!" TK shouted. "What if she's hurt? We need to help her!"

TK ran for the passageway and started to make his way down the narrow, rugged path, until he reached the point where they had last seen Kari. The invisible barrier, which for some unknown reason only she could pass through, was still there. Past it nothing was visible. Anything could have happened.

The others followed TK down the pathway and crammed themselves into the small space there was. The digimon followed, managing to push her way through to the front. Hawkmon put his wing up to feel the glass-like structure of the barrier; it was indeed still there.

"I'm sure she's alright TK, she's strong," Cody tried to assure TK and Gatomon, but his face was still full of worry and she was pensively staring down the bleak pathway.

The digidestined were in a hopeless position, In reality, there was nothing they could do to help their friend; they didn't even know if she needed their help. All they could do was watch, watch and hope.

Gatomon's ears perked up. She stared hard down the passageway.

"Something's coming," she said.

"Is it Kari?" TK nervously asked. She stared even harder, squinting in the blackness.

"I don't…"

Her voice trailed off as she seen something far down the corridor. What looked like two amber-yellow marbles were floating up the path, at walking pace. As they got slightly nearer, the marbles looked more and more like eyes, reflecting the miniscule light in the tunnel. Gatomon's mouth hung open as a dark form, hard to make out in the blackness, made it's way ever closer to the surface.

It stopped around fifty feet from the invisible wall. Gatomon was awestruck.

"It's… it's…"

Her eyes were wide with disbelief.

"That's a BlackGatomon!" Hawkmon suddenly realised.

The virus counterpart of Gatomon started stalking forward again, slowly putting one paw in front of the other, and walking on all fours. The digidestined were transfixed with her expansive golden-yellow coloured eyes. They seemed to have a hint of menace in them.

"What if that digimon got Kari!?" Davis asked. The others thought. It was a virus digimon, it looked hostile, and those eyes… The decision was made.

The digidestined and digimon outside the invisible barrier all moved back into the main cavern where they had been previously waiting. Fighting stances were adopted.

The BlackGatomon emerged from the gateway. She stared around the cavern, but her attention was attracted by the four rookie digimon all swiftly moving towards her in attacking stances.

"Vee Headbutt!" Veemon called out his attack, launching himself towards the cat digimon. As she got closer, he saw her face change and her strong leg muscles power her out of harm's way. Veemon crashed into the cavern wall.

"Hawk Beam!" The feather of Hawkmon's attack headed straight for the spot where the BlackGatomon had just landed. Before she even had time to look up, the feather hit her in the stomach, pushing her back a few feet. The eyes blinked. She was unharmed.

She ran to the other side of the cave, trying to avoid the attacks of the digimon. "Diamond Shell!" Armadillomon started to roll after her at high speed, but the cat foreseen the attack and graciously leaped over him, causing him to careen into a loose rock on the floor.

Patamon attacked with his Boom Bubble. The air pocket rushed towards the virus digimon and hit it square in the head. Knocked back, she tumbled over backwards and landed on her front, dazed from Patamon's air attack. Gatomon relished the opportunity and rushed in, her paw held up.

"Lightning…"

She stopped. Her attack was about to make contact with the digimon, whose eyes were tightly shut, holding her head in her paws, scared witless. When the attack didn't connect, she opened them again and looked up at her vaccine counterpart.

Gatomon stared at her. She was feeling something she hadn't felt in years – guilt. The last time she felt that was Myotismon's invasion of Odaiba.

'_Why did I stop?'_

She concentrated, and looked at the BlackGatomon, who was still frozen in fear from Gatomon's attack. There was something about those yellow eyes. Something familiar.

Gatomon gasped sharply.

"K-… K-… Kari?"

The dark digimon broke down and started wailing. The tears flew freely from her expansive eyes. Gatomon looked on in awe. The others looked in shock, unmoving.

A lower, huskier voice spoke softly, "It's me, Gatomon."


	4. Chapter 4

_**DARK LIGHT**_

_Chapter 4_

* * *

The soft rustling of the digital grass was the primary noise of the sparse woodland the digidestined were walking through. The whole second-generation group were there, along with their digimon partners. Tai, Kari's sister, has also insisted he came along on the important trip the group was currently making. The reason that everyone was so quiet and pensive was because a member of their team was about to go behind enemy lines, undercover. That member was Kari, who was completely unrecognisable in her current form, as BlackGatomon. The others walked uneasily behind her, as she and her partner walked at the head of the group, almost like twin sisters. 

The team was moving according to the speed of the two feline digimon, which was slow considering that Kari was still having some trouble walking on her hind legs. At one stage she even tripped over her own tail, to which Gatomon replied with a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

While Kari was busying herself with the task of putting one paw in front of the other, she remembered how the whole fiasco started in the first place…

* * *

"_Any monsters, just give us a shout, OK?" Davis told her._

"_Yeah, I'll keep that in mind Davis."_

With the rest of the group looking on, Kari just walked on through the force field, while everyone else pressed up against it. Not even Gatomon could get through it to accompany her partner. Kari started to walk slowly on down the path, as there was still no light source and the path was fairly rocky.

'_I hope whatever's down here in friendly,'_ she thought. Her heartbeat was getting quicker and harder as every step brought her closer to the end of the tunnel. She shivered.

'_I wish Gatomon was here. Or Tai. Or TK. Or anybody for that matter.'_

As the Child of Light continued to walk slowly down the dark passageway, it seemed that the path was becoming brighter. Kari spied a light at the end of the tunnel.

"Well, here we go," she said to no one in particular.

The small speck of light became larger and larger as Kari, shaking all over, reached closer and closer to the innards of the cavern. Within a few seconds, Kari stopped.

She found herself in another room, much the same size as the entrance cavern to the temple. This cavern was much brighter than the entrance and the corridor, but it was unclear where the light was coming from. Kari's attention, however, was instantly drawn to a small table in the middle of the rocky room. On it were two strange looking things indeed.

"Gatomon's… paw gloves? That's what the artefact is?"

She picked up one of the gloves and examined it. It certainly has the same design as Gatomon's paw gloves, but they were different in a sort of way. While Gatomon's were a yellow-ish colour, these were more of a dark purple colour. They were also slightly larger.

"What am I meant to do with these?" she said to herself. The wind whistled through the temple. Apart from the draft, there was no sound to be heard. Kari stood, staring at the two paw gloves in her hands. She shivered.

"Put them on." A soft female voice came from nowhere.

Kari dropped the gloves on to the table with a clatter.

"Who's there?!" she shouted in a terrified voice. She frantically looked all around the stone cavern, searching for the owner of the voice.

"A friend," the voice said again. It seemed to Kari to be coming from all around the cave. "Put them on," the voice repeated.

Kari stopped looking around and focused on the paw gloves. Her hands would be the perfect fit. Her eyes were unmoving from the artefacts sitting on the table.

The voice compelled her, and the world disappeared in a haze of darkness. She collapsed.

* * *

The group continued on, with the looming Domain of Darkness getting larger and larger as they hesitantly approached. No words has been spoken since they had left Gennai's lake house. The feeling of worry for Kari hung around the group. None of them even knew if the digimon inside the Domain would be able to sense if Kari was a real digimon or not. Heck, they didn't even know if she would make it through the barrier unscathed. 

Kari started to rehearse the back-story they had created for her earlier on that day…

* * *

_The door to the school's computer room was slid shut._

Even though classes weren't going on, the actual building was still being used, so it was kept unlocked. If anyone came in, the digidestined could always use the pretence that the computer club was having a meeting. In any case, the real reason the team was here was to come up with a plan of action for Kari's mission into the Domain of Darkness. Present were Davis, Yolei, Cody, TK, Kari, Ken, and their partners.

"Well, what did Gennai say? He just needs information?" TK asked the collective.

"Looks that way. We wouldn't want to put Kari in a more dangerous position than she's in already," Ken answered.

Kari sighed. "But why did it have to be me?" she said, in her husky voice.

"well it was, and there's not much we can do about it now," Yolei stated, crossing her arms.

The group fell silent. The other digimon looked up, frowning. This situation was far from ideal, but it was their only chance. Kari had to take it.

"So," Kari started, "all I have to do is walk around, find out what's going on and come out again? That doesn't seem _so_ bad."

"But what if you have to talk to whatever's in there? You need a cover story in case someone asks who you are," Cody said.

The rest of the group lurched into thought.

"You… were just born?" Davis said, unconvincingly. The others looked sardonically at him. "OK, OK, bad idea."

"Well, we could just say you're an evil digimon," Ken suggested. Kari shuddered.

"It'll need to be deeper than that," TK added.

"Well," Davis began, "how about forgetting coming up with your own and using Gatomon's!"

The digidestined all simultaneously looked up in thought, trying to find flaw with Davis' plan.

"Minus the switching sides part, umm…" Davis suddenly felt uneasy andf looked in the direction of Kari's partner, who was sitting on the chair opposite, coolly looking back.

"Don't feel like you're walking on eggshells, Davis," she simply said. Davis appeared less hesitant.

"Minus the switching sides part, I think it could work," he finished.

Kari looked over at Gatomon. She could see her much better now that they were the same height. Kari looked on with doubt. Gatomon has already told her the whole story, but now she would have to live out the part for real. That was of course, if she had Gatomon's permission.

"I don't see why not," Gatomon said, moving slightly. She smiled. "I'm glad my past will finally be used for something good."

Everyone exhaled a sigh of relief.

* * *

The group stopped. They were now fifty yards from the barrier to the Domain, and the air was so thick with greyness and evil that it would have been impossible for any of them to venture further. Any of them except for, of course, BlackGatomon. 

Kari turned around and looked up at her friends.

"I guess this is it, then," she said, slowly sighing.

The emotion running through the group was almost visible to see.

"We know you'll do great Kari, don't worry," Yolei said, trying to sound reassuring. "Good luck!"

"Just play cool. You'll be fine, Kari," Cody gave her a comforting smile.

"You know we'll be cheering for you!" Davis shouted. The optimism was clearly infectious as Kari smiled back. Her amber eyes glowed warmly.

Ken stepped forward a little, squinting in the grey mist, and spoke more quietly.

"Please be careful, Kari. The powers of darkness are strong, believe me I know, but you _have_ to be stronger. For all our sakes." Ken nodded as Kari stared up, taking in and heeding Ken's warning.

"Yeah Kari, I don't know what I'd do with myself if you didn't come out of there," TK said, gloomily.

"Please don't worry TK, I'll try my best," Kari reassured. It did little in placating TK's anxieties.

Tai stepped forward and knelt down in front of Kari's feline form. He spoke quietly, avoiding her mesmerising gaze.

"Come home safe, sis. You know mom and dad'll go nuts if they find out you're missing for too long. Just… just watch yourself."

"Oh, Tai," Kari looked away, unable to watch the towering figure of her brother. "I'll try…"

"But what if trying isn't good enough?! This is you life, Kari!" Tai interrupted. He fell back on to the grass, and exhaled.

"This is our best chance, Tai. I have to," Kari said, solemnly. As she looked round, she met eyes with Gatomon. The very glimpse of each others eyes managed to set tears rolling.

"I can't believe… I won't be able to protect you," said Gatomon, sobbing.

Kari sniffed, and smiled, "But you are! Your past is going to help our future."

Gatomon smiled. "I'll see ya later, Kari."

She turned, and the group took a collective step back. The moment had arrived. Kari started to slowly pace forward, feeling the separation between her friends more with every inch of distance between them. She was leaving that behind. She was different now. Letting the instinct take over, she dropped down on to all four paws and made her way through the thick grey wall.

* * *

Time almost stopped for a few seconds as Kari's eyes clamped shut. A cold rush swept through her tiny body as she moved forward, starting at the finger tips and briefly running back, making her stand bolt upright. Her eyes opened. She looked around. 

Kari didn't have any expectations about how the Domain would look from the inside, but now that she was here, the realisation hit her all the harder. She was still on the same path as before, but this side of it had a ghostly grey hue to it. The trees around her were dead still and devoid of any sort of colour. She looked over her shoulder. The wall of darkness still stood, but the outside world was faintly visible from this side. She saw her friends walk away, and stayed until they were only a faint grey dot on the barrier.

She sighed. _'So what now?'_ she thought.

There were no digimon guarding this path into the Domain. None that she could see, and also none that she could sense. But Kari didn't even know how to interpret these wild, new senses yet. The world looked so much larger than before. She stared at the red pattern on her deep purple paw gloves and her dark black fur.

'_The digidestined of Light as a virus digimon, who could've planned this one?'_ she sarcastically thought to herself. Unsurely, she started to step forward. While it was at a snail's pace at first, she eventually gained more confidence and built up a steady pace, her tail swishing around behind her.

'_Maybe it'll be OK after all.'_


End file.
